BRIDE PRICE CAN PROTECT WOMEN TOO

Bride Price in Papua New Guinea is paid by the family of the husband to the family of the young woman to compensate the father for the loss of a work unit in the family.

But sadly some families take this to mean that the young woman becomes the property of the new family. The husband owns her and she becomes the slave of the mother-in-law who will usually side with the son against his wife. 

Bride price in India is known as dowry and is the weapon used by many greedy families to rip money off the family of the bride. 

The son has just graduated from university so a claim goes to the bride's family for an increase in dowry. There are regular incidents of young Hindu wives dying at the hands of exploding kerosene stoves. That is murder.

The bride price in Papua New Guinea goes to the father of the young woman. If he is a white man the arrangement still stands. But non-payment of bride price means that the young woman and any children still belong to the father. 

Some parents accept bride price from any PNG scumbag who will mistreat the daughter. If she runs away, the family will drag her back to be bashed by her husband.

My elder daughter was taken from me at 15 years old by ex-speaker Jeffrey Nape who never paid bride price. I was in hospital at the time.  But that did not matter. I refused to accept bride price.

I told my elder daughter that I will accept payment only when she gives the word that she was happy and wanted to remain with Nape. But he was greedy and wanted to marry my younger daughter too.

But my younger daughter and I moved to Lae which made Nape go off his mind. He never saw her again and died some weeks later. With no bride price, my daughters and sons belonged to me and still do. 

But the son of Nape is seeking to support her financially which helps my finances. I accept that she now lives at Morata with the Nape older children and enjoys respect from them. 

She has become part of family and cares for her younger sister and son as well. The standard of the Nape family has risen.

My younger daughter ended up in a rotten relationship with a boy who never cared for her while pregnant but claimed the baby belonged to him when they met late last year. No bride price paid and no name of the boy on the birth certificate. She ran off after he bashed her.

His mixed race mother and ex-headmaster father tried to threaten my daughter with arrest for stealing their child and promised to seek a custody order.  That is when I the father stepped in with the facts of life. The daughter and grand-son belonged to me, back off !!

My family is being protected by unpaid bride price. My younger daughter suffered under the control of a so-called mother-in-law who was only on her son's side. 

But my younger daughter belongs to her father, a white man who treats her with gender equality.  That will never change until she marries a good man who loves and respects her. Let her bring him home to meet her father first. I may even give him a discount on bride price.

There are several women who cared for Lisa as a child. I would like to help them with a bride price gift.